Public Libraries and Government Transparency

UAlbany Center for Technology in Government Will Use Federal Laura Bush Grant to Explore
Public Libraries' Role in Open Government

ALBANY, NY (August 28, 2013) – The Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the University at Albany will bring together thought leaders from academia, government, and private and non-profit organizations to explore the ways public libraries can help governments achieve their open government agendas.

More: http://www.albany.edu/news/42248.php?WT.eml=nc

Cartoon by Adam Zyglis of the Buffalo News: http://www.adamzyglis.com/cartoon271.html

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The Carnegie Medal and Us

Perhaps this is a boast, but two thirds of the finalists for the newly established Andrew Carnegie Medal of the American Library Association recently visited the New York State Writers Institute.

Anne Enright, who visited on April 18 has received the first-ever Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction.

Both of the remaining two finalists for the medal were also recent Institute guests:  Karen Russell, who came in February 2011, and Russell Banks, who visits often.

Robert K. Massie (who, oddly, has never been here though he lives in Irvington, NY) received the Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction.

Among the remaining two nonfiction contenders was James Gleick, who came in March 2011. The reamining finalist was the late Manning Marable.

For more on the award, visit American Libraries, the magazine of the American Library Association.

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Czech Treasure: The Jarka M. Burian Collection at Ohio State

Institute friends Grayce Burian and her husband, the late Jarka Burian, a distinguished member of the UAlbany Theatre faculty, are the subjects of an article in the current issue of  Folio, the newsletter of The Ohio State University Libraries. An excerpt follows:

The Czech Collections at the Theatre Research Institute
by Nena Couch

"The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute is an active participant in a variety of international initiatives and partnerships involving Czech theatre…"

"One of the Institute’s major Czech treasures is the Jarka M. Burian collection which offers a tremendous resource for researchers in Czech theatre, containing his research papers, posters, programs, photographs, taped interviews with Czech theatre artists, books, and other materials. The Burian collection also documents major cultural and political events, including the Soviet bloc invasion in 1968, which Jarka and Grayce Burian experienced during their many research trips to Prague. Many individual theatre artists including playwright Václav Havel (later President of the Czech Republic), and the majority of scenographers whose design work is held at the Lawrence and Lee Institute are documented in the Burian papers."

"The Burian collection provides a focus of international engagement. During fall 2010, the Institute hosted visiting Fulbright Fellow Barbora Príhodová, Ph.D. student at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. Príhodová’s Fulbright project was part of her doctoral dissertation work on scenographer Josef Svoboda. While it may seem counter-intuitive, it was in fact necessary for Czech scholar Príhodová to come to Columbus to research Czech scenographer Svoboda in order to, as she noted, 'benefit from Jarka Burian’s unique heritage as well as the rich American academic culture.' …"

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Inside Their Personal Libraries

The most recent issue of Atlantic offers a glimpse inside the homes and personal libraries of several of our visiting writers.

Featured authors include Steven Pinker and Rebecca Goldstein, Jonathan Lethem, Claire Messud and James Wood, and Gary Shteyngart.

See the article.

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